Advertising and marketing of products and/or services is one of the largest industries in the world. One important, and often expensive, component of many advertising/marketing campaigns is the creation, and distribution, of advertisements and marketing devices such as, but not limited to: printed and/or digital media advertisements; web-site based advertisements and/or coupons; discount certificates; price guarantees; package/upgrade vouchers; group discount vouchers; multiple “for the price of one” offers/vouchers; and or any other advertisement and/or marketing device designed to encourage some form of consumer action and/or inaction.
Traditionally, some advertisements and/or marketing devices have been distributed in “hard-copy”, typically printed, form by various means, including, but not limited to: by mail; in newspapers; in magazines; in flyers and inserts; at store front and/or product displays; and/or as attachments to store receipts (i.e., printed on the back of a receipt or appended to a receipt). More recently, electronic media based advertisements and/or marketing devices have been offered/distributed using electronic means such as, but not limited to: networks of computing systems, including public networks such as the Internet; through and/or on web-sites; by e-mail; as electronic attachments to electronic receipts; and as electronic attachments to transactional data, such as, but not limited to, transactional data from and/or displayed by, banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions.
Advertisements and/or marketing devices, such as those displayed on web-sites, provided in printed media, displayed on television, and/or as distributed through the mail, are most effective, and often only effective, if the advertisements and/or marketing devices are displayed and/or distributed to the largest number of viewers. In addition, in many cases, it is important that a given advertisement and/or marketing device be viewed by the largest number of viewers multiple times, i.e., a given viewer should be exposed to the advertisements and/or marketing devices at least a determined minimum number of times and typically as many times as possible. As noted above, the result is that to try and achieve this desired/required number of “impressions” to the right viewers, the advertisements and/or marketing devices themselves, as well as the advertisement and/or marketing device distribution means, can represent a significant expense to the advertisement and/or marketing device provider.
Typically, the advertisement and/or marketing device providers are willing to incur this expense to meet various, and often specific, marketing goals, including, but not limited to: induce customers to purchase a specific item or service; to help build up a customer base; to get consumers into a store; to retain customers who find a lower price for an item from a competitor; to lure customers away from a competitor; and/or to help clear excess inventory and/or to boost sales of a given product.
However, for many advertisement and/or marketing device providers, especially advertisement and/or marketing device providers using digital and/or on-line advertising, it is very difficult to reach the required number of desirable viewers, and provide the number of desirable viewers the desired number of impressions, in order to justify the advertisement and/or marketing device creation and/or distribution costs.
For instance, using current methods of “targeting” desirable viewers, digital and/or on-line advertisement and/or marketing device providers often rely on typically unverifiable demographic information, e.g., the consumers' self-reported age, sex, and/or income information. In other cases, the advertisement and/or marketing device providers attempt to target specific consumers by relying on information about the content contained within the hosting website, e.g., they may provide advertisements and/or marketing devices related to children's products on parenting-related web-sites. However, this targeting data is very speculative and unreliable, at best. Consequently, using current methods, advertisement and/or marketing device providers often pay for impressions of their advertisement and/or marketing device made to consumers who are not interested, or for whom the subject of the advertisement and/or marketing device is simply not relevant.
In an attempt to more efficiently use their marketing and/or advertising resources, sellers of products and/or services, and other providers of advertisements and/or market devices, often wish to provide their advertisements and/or marketing devices only to consumers who have specific attributes that are particularly desirable to the seller.
As one example, a seller may be particularly interested in targeting consumers who have a specific income. As a more specific example, a seller of high end products and/or services may be interested in targeting select consumers who have a threshold income, for instance an annual income if $100,000.00 or more. In these instances, the seller may wish to avoid “wasting” their advertising resources on lower income consumers who would not be likely to use their product and/or service. In other instances, a seller may provide products and/or services that are typically not of interest to higher income consumers, for instance pawn shops or sub-prime lenders. In these instances, the seller may wish to target select consumers who have lower incomes and not “waste” their advertising resources on higher income consumers who would not be likely to use their product and/or service.
As another example, a seller may be particularly interested in targeting consumers who have a family. As a more specific example, a seller of child-related products and/or services may be interested in targeting select consumers who have at least one dependent. In these instances, the seller may wish to avoid “wasting” their advertising resources on consumers who do not have any children.
Similar to the desires of the advertisement and/or marketing device providers, most consumers would also prefer to receive advertisements and/or marketing devices that are relevant to the consumer, i.e., that are of use to the consumer and/or are directed to products and/or services the consumer uses, or that the consumer may be planning to use in the future.
Despite the desire of sellers, and other providers of advertisements and/or marketing devices, as well as consumers, to create a better system for reaching desirable consumers, there currently is often no information, or limited information, available to the sellers, and other providers of advertisements and/or marketing devices, about a given consumer to enable the sellers, and other providers of advertisements and/or marketing devices, to accurately identify the consumer as a desirable, and/or preferred, customer.